Our once a year reminder:
Heroes exist, both in and outside of dreams.

“Please keep The Neighborhood open
because of the many wonderful ideas
still coming up in your mind.
You’re an inspiration.”– Lovegeria

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A Hero Earns His Wings
by Kendall F. Person

based on real life heroism

On January 2, 2007, a man named Wesley Autrey would earn his wings. Underground, with his two young daughters in a Manhattan subway station, he would witness a stranger fall, landing three feet down on train tracks.

The stranger had a name, Cameron Hollopeter, landed on his back and while no bones were broke upon the fall, he was suffering from an epileptic seizure, and unable to stand up. And to the rising horror of the crowd, it was at that moment, things went from bad to worse, for on the approach, and right on time, was the Broadway – Seventh Avenue train, with no time to slow down.

Wesley Autrey, who would come to be affectionately known as the subway hero, would entrust his daughters into the kindness of strangers, and with only one thought, he dove over the platform, quickly covering Cameron’s body up, and kept them both still while the train, with five cars attached, passed overhead within a millimeter of their life.

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from Sidewalk musik
You Against Yourself

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and the Blinded Soldiers See
by Kendall F. Person

Engrossed in bitter debates, divided by senseless hate, overwhelmed by a thunder not from the sky, but by differences of opinion, that mattered not in the sanctity of life. From the corners of their eyes, they could see them on the rise. Scores of men, women and children from all around the world. Sounds of peace echoed from their voices, each holding the hand of another, refusing to give up on peace. The feuding men, with indignation rising from their voices, and the slow blowing wind, giving way to gusts of gale forces, had only a moment to lay down false bravado, calm their angry voices and resolve their small differences, in the wake of the force that was coming, but they were blinded by the soldiers of peace.

The wind would swirl into an inferno, carrying the voices of the polarizing faces, clashing in the middle, drowning out the anger but also overshadowing the sounds of peace. But the voices of reason would not give in. They would raise their level, now in battle against the howling wind. The indignant ones, refused to stand down, and what began as a disagreement among old friends, morphed into an explosive commotion that neither side would win. And when the frontline became weary, the children, our future would take the lead, somehow knowing that if peace were to be saved, it would come out of the mouths of babes.

In the same world they live, but innocence still belongs to them. The scary monster under the bed, they find comfort in discovering, it was only a bad dream. They play with one another, unknowing one day they will expected to be foes. Their eyes still sparkled with wonders of an expanding life. But there existed wisdom in those kids, far beyond their age in years, and they saw a world, they longed to change.

Why is world peace a notion  celebrated only one day each year? Why can we all imagine a world war, but laugh at the idea of world peace? Why would the men with anger in their voices, not reach out and grab it, when it was in arm’s reach? Why do we sing with such beautiful voices, and paint with such amazing color, and dance with inspiring grace, and write words of uplifting spirit, if we refuse to fight hate?

But the story would not end, as you may have feared, because the tiny tots, would form a rainbow, by holding hands. They stood shoulder to shoulder and sang at the top of their lungs. As if tamed by the sound they made, the storm of wind, would fizzle. The sun fell with grace upon the land, and the hatred between men screamed its last breath. Defeated by voices of reason, and the blinded soldiers, could finally see.

–The Neighborhood